ISLAMABAD / LAHORE: Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) vice chairman Ahsan Bhoon and Executive Committee chairman Chaudhry Hafeezur Rehman expressed concern on Saturday over the stalemate arising out of hooliganism in and outside the courtroom of Justice Mohammad Qasim Khan in the LHC Multan bench on July 24, and then on Aug 2 in the court of LHC Chief Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah.

The controversy emerged when president of the LHC Bar Association Multan Sher Zaman, along with some other lawyers, allegedly misbehaved with Justice Qasim Khan.

Subsequently, the LHC CJ withdrew judges from the Multan bench in exercise of his constitutional powers, but made available the principal seat of LHC and the Bahawalpur bench for the cases on the cause list of the Multan bench. Later the lawyers also protested inside the courtroom of the chief justice at Lahore.

Mr Bhoon and Mr Rehman urged the office-bearers of all the lawyer bodies, including the Sup­reme Court Bar Association (SCBA), to perform responsibly and discourage the miscreants, to make the bench and bar free of spoilers.

They urged Sher Zaman to join judicial proceedings and appear before the full bench of LHC to clear his position, which is imperative to pay respect to the court and important for the smooth functioning of the system in the larger interest of the legal fraternity as well as the judiciary.

Meanwhile, the LHC authorities have called in Rangers to take over security of the court on Monday (Aug 21) when a larger bench would resume hearing of the contempt matter against Sher Zaman.

Sources in the LHC establishment say agitation and hooliganism by the lawyers on past hearings of the contempt case forced the authorities to engage Rangers for the security of the court.

Officials of the Rangers and police held a meeting on Saturday with LHC Registrar Khurshid Anwar Rizvi and finalised the security plan.

On Friday last, as many as 85 jurists, including former judges and senior lawyers asked the SCBA to disavow the unfortunate trend of hooliganism and take a clear stance supporting the settled norms of legal practice.

Published in Dawn, August 20th, 2017